I'm having a debate with a friend regarding the story Garth Ennis wrote back in 2003 which is "Thor: Vikings", we're arguing whether it was canon or not.

my point was, that the story was not canon because it was published under the Marvel MAX imprint and we all know most of the stories published under the MAX banner is considered non-canon except maybe for "Alias"

His rebuttal was, Most MAX series are not canon because they contradict the main Marvel Universe, like the aging of Punisher, or things like Deadpool MAX which is an entirely retelling of the character´s history. But surprisingly Thor Vikings is canon, because it doesn´t contradict or conflicts with the main Thor or Doctor Strange history and reason why this was published as a MAX series mainly because it had some gore elements and Marvel back then send everything that had a little more mature content into the MAX imprint, plus Garth Ennis preferred to keep working on MAX.

So any Marvel Comics experts here to clear this up? is it canon or not? if not, in what Marvel Earth the story took place?